Will EU states endorse disciplinary action against Italy?

The European Commission has recommended to start disciplinary procedures against Italy after it broke the EU’s debt rules in 2018 and is likely to do so in 2019 and 2020.

The European Council will consider whether to start an “excessive deficit procedure” against Rome which could result in billions of euros in fines.

“To be clear, today we are not opening a procedure,” the EU commissioner for the Euro Valdis Dombrovskis said, adding that there were multiple steps to go before Italy saw any sanctions.

The first step is the EU’s Economic and Financial Committee, made up of national finance ministers and the heads of central banks in member states, will now have two weeks to decide whether to back the recommendation to proceed with disciplinary action.